Is Egenera Proprietary

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In software, your competitorsagain, IBM, HP, etc. are moving toward a more open environment, where Egeneras appears more proprietary. Can you talk about that?
Nothing is more proprietary than Unix. Nothings less open than Unix. So, to stick a proprietary label on Egenera really doesnt make a lot of sense. If you want proprietary, look for Unix or look for mainframe operating systems. Nothings more proprietary than that. And really, two Unixes really arent even the same. We use the Linux from Red Hat [Inc.] and [Novell Inc.s] SuSE. We dont touch the Linux. Its pure open-source software.

Personally, Ive never heard a customer say Egenera is proprietary. Not even close to that. Its totally the opposite, that were totally open and that we run a totally open operating system, so were as open as you get.

But your virtualization software is proprietary.
Yeah, but thats like saying Cisco is proprietary. Think of it as middleware. Its an enabling layer of software that takes the complexity out of operating at the enterprise level.
IBM, HP and others talk about getting to the point where their management software can manage other vendors environments. Is that in Egeneras future? Do you see a time when Egeneras software will be able to manage hardware from your competitors?
You can look out into the future and see Egenera software being deployed differently than it is today. But today, a customer can use [Computer Associates International Inc.] or [IBMs] Tivoli to manage an Egenera BladeFrame. So, whatever infrastructure a customer has, we just look like another component that fits into that environment.
What directions can we expect you to take Egenera in?
The most important thing for Egenera is to continue to grow as aggressively as we have. Last year, our revenues grew more than 200 percent. That made us the fastest-growing technology company that we could find in its first four years of existencefaster than Sun, faster than Network Appliance, faster than Brocade [Communications Systems Inc.], faster than McData [Corp.], faster than Siebel [Systems Inc.]. Priority No. 1 for Egenera is to continue to grow because what that growth equates to is new customers. The more new customers we have, the more new footprints we have and the more were able to continue to grow. Growth begets growth.
And another key thing is, were getting all the good ideas about where we need to go next from our customers. Well just continue to work with our customers, and our customers will describe to us that, now that they have our technology, this is what else they can do with it, this is where else they can take it. As long as we continue to listen and stay connected to our customers, well continue to stay ahead. Were able to put all of our energy into what our customers want us to do.
What are the customers telling you?
Bigger. Now that they have Egenera installed, they see the value it brings, so they want us to make it bigger.
By bigger, do you mean more processors?
Yeah, be able to put more blades, more processors, into their infrastructure. We can attach them together so that they can get that Egenera software value and that simplistic management system deployed over more processing capability. More applications. Customers tell us, Now that youre running some applications, I have my accounting from an ISVPeopleSoft [Inc.] or SAP [AG]and Id like to be able to run those applications on the Egenera infrastructure.
So, youll see us bring out more applications for it. More partnerships. We have strong partnerships with companies like Microsoft and EMC and Red Hat, and youll continue to see us get more partnerships so that customers know that our technology fits in with their existing infrastructures. The next near-term step for the company would be something like an IPO, where we would go public and tap the public markets funds to that we can continue to fuel our growth.
And youre still on track for an IPO this year?
Yeah, thats the way its looking. At some point this year. Thats all targeted at having the funds available to continue to aggressively grow.
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